Women in Tech

Don’t Hire One Woman. Hire Three.

When the author was leading an all-male DevOps team at Square, they were trying to close a female candidate. To ensure she would thrive in the team, the author decided to hire three women - the candidate, an intern, and a bootcamp graduate. This changed the team's culture dramatically, making it more enjoyable to work in and more open and less defensive. The author learned that inclusion and diversity can help everyone, not just certain minorities.

Coaching Women Engineers: Professionally, and for Life

When mentoring women engineers, it is important to help them build confidence and articulate their goals clearly. It is also important to be inspiring and help them recognize their skills and resources. Mentors should be aware of the impact they have on others and strive to be the best example.

Building a Gender-Balanced Engineering Organization in the Middle East

Jordan's tech scene has a gender distribution of 50:50 in colleges, but this does not translate to the workforce due to women not being expected to stay late at the office. To challenge this, the core team responsible for establishing the Expedia Jordan office focused on making sure to build a sustainable gender-equal presence from the get-go. This included top-of-funnel sourcing, resume screening, tech tasks, and onsite interviews. The outcome was a 50:50 gender balance, showing that women engineers were succeeding in the recruiting process at a higher rate than men. This highlights the untapped talent pool of female engineers in Jordan.

Owning Your Career

A person with Imposter Syndrome has learned to take ownership of their career and to believe in themselves. They have done this by learning to catch their self-doubt, to accept positive feedback, to see negative feedback as systemic, and to fake it until they make it. They have also sought out mentors, networking opportunities, and therapy to help them on their journey. They have learned that many people, especially women in male-dominated fields, are struggling with Imposter Syndrome and should be encouraged to introspect, speak up, take risks, and believe in themselves.

The Quiet Efforts to Overcome the Men-Only Environment in a Startup

This article discusses the issue of "bro-culture" in startups, where men outnumber women in senior executive positions. It suggests that to address this issue, people should understand the cultural dynamics, communicate with colleagues, and actively participate in changing the environment. It also suggests that events such as Brene Brown's TED Talk on the power of vulnerability can help create psychological safety.

Giving Back to Other Women in the Industry

This article discusses the importance of mentorship and networking for women in the industry, and the need for a sponsor or advocate in executive leadership. It also highlights the importance of connecting with leaders and extending oneself outward to find success. The author shares her experience of being part of a women's committee at Microsoft and a centralized group of women at her current company, and how she has played the role of mentor and mentee many times.